Did Neanderthals use Iron tools?

I just don't think Iron is as hard to work as people are led to believe, melting iron to purify it is certainly harder than working with Gold, silver, tin and copper which is why the Bronze age exists, theoretically. But working Iron into a metallic substance and shaping it doesn't require a liquid phase, and only requires temperatures achievable by the same hearths used to work copper and tin into bronze.

I think this is what the paper I cited principally argues.

The Neanderthals were a tangent which I found more interesting than the premise of the paper itself.

reply to post by FreeMason


As an afterthought though, if Iron could be worked as easily as the other metals, the question is begged why weren't the other metals also worked? For the metal ages this isn't too difficult an issue, iron and all the rest were worked together.

But to suggest iron was also worked longer than that poses a problem that would require some thinking, such as mining techniques.

Perhaps the desire for ochre as a pigment led to the working as a metal, but no such pigment desire and no real desire in geology/metals means other ores were not discovered?

In general, I'd think a stone tool user would be pretty good at knowing rocks, however.

Snarl

Agreed. 20,000+ year old evidence is a difficult thing to conveniently locate in the fossil record.

Depends on what you are lookings for

Conversations with some very learned, very experienced, extremely open-minded scholars/doers has led
me to several conclusions. We're not looking in the right places and there's a serious cover-up underfoot.

Do tell

Settled science (having nothing to do with scientific method, mind you) has conceded strength to the Neanderthal. Why are 'they' seemingly so reluctant to concede a greater capacity for intelligence as well?

Nothing was 'conceded' it was researched and agreed upon. 99.9% of what we know about hominini comes from scientific research.

What evidence of our existence would remain after 20,000 years, let alone 65 million?

A great deal - enough to show the type of culture they had - simply look at what survives in archaeological digs dated to the that period. Fortunately we don't have to look back that far - the Paleos do that!

reply to post by FreeMason


Very interesting. Thanks for the find.

It should be noted that red iron oxide ochre has been found in many neanderthal burials so it probably had a spiritual significance. Also it has been found in almost every Neanderthal site. Could this all have been tools that just rusted away?

They were prolific in shaping tools from wood. Their stone tools were better in some ways than those of other hominids. Could they have made tools from Iron as well since they werent making inferior tools with other materials either?

I swear there is no more interesting subject to me than neanderthal. So much is yet to be learned.

reply to post by FreeMason


Interesting thread, and a topic I never read about before! Will have to do some hunting on this one, and see what I can locate. S&F for an intriguing topic.

Snarl
Here's a piece of iron that doesn't 'erode away.' Iron Pillar of Delhi

We know about as much of Neanderthal as we do this OOPART ... it's all speculation.

edit on 12102013 by Snarl because: Autocorrect

What makes you think that the Iron Pillar of Delhi is an OOPART??
Care to elucidate???

The only natural source of a big lump of Iron is Iron meteorites, Meteorites are VERY difficult to forge because when you get them hot and strike them with a hammer they shatter into pieces. Maybe you could forge an iron meteorite if it had a low nickle content. Your next option would be bog ore or Hematite both of which are iron oxide (rust). Red Ocher is a type of hematite rich clay, up to 70% iron III oxide. Even if you found an ocher mine with 70% hematite that's still 30% junk which would make it impossible to forge without smelting, you would be better to start with bog ore or hematite rock.

alfa1

Snarl
We know about as much of Neanderthal as we do this OOPART ...

How does this get classified as an "OOPART"?
According to the link you provided, it is known where it was made, why it was made, how it was made, the people who made it and what it is made of.
So the metallurgy of it makes it corrosion resistant, but I've got a sink in my kitchen that also doesnt corrode due to metallurgy. Are you saying that simply because it is old, it must therefore be paranormal, supernation, or given to us by aliens?

im assuming you are talking about stainless steel... wich does corrode.

Interesting. I have to say red ochre being piles of rust had occurred to me, too, years ago... but doesn't their chemical composition preclude this?

Back to Wiki, I guess...